Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Bagott Motors, in Palouse, was where three feral kittens were found.
TLC Animal Care is planning on building a facility at the east end of Palouse, where they will be able to help with feral cats.
PALOUSE – A question of feral cats has come up in Palouse.
"We're trying to figure out if it's a problem and what we can do about it," said Kyle Dixon, city administrator.
He is looking into costs and possible grants to cover humane traps and then neutering.
The wild cats have increasingly been seen in the past year on the east end of Main Street.
"We had a couple shop cats, they took down the mice population, so we left them," said Alex Anderson, owner of Palouse Welding, Design and Manufacturing, located at the riverbank off Main Street. "Suddenly we got more. We caught a kitten and the mother this morning."
On Oct. 20, Dixon and Katie Cooper, Palouse city council chair of the policy and administration committee, met with Dr. Andi Edwards of TLC Animal Care in Palouse.
"I love cats, but they can get pretty destructive," said Edwards, who works with a "TNR" program – trap, neuter, release -- through Whitman County Humane Society, and another in St. Maries.
The program uses humane traps, luring cats into familiar boxes with food inside, then taking them to a Humane Society host clinic (such as TLC) to be spayed or neutered. The cats are then re-released where they were, or to a specific barn, etc. with an ear-notch – a cut at an unnatural angle – to signify they have been spayed or neutered.
"You still have the cats, but you don't have cats making other cats," said Edwards.
At Bagott Motors, down the street from Palouse Welding, the owners recently found three kittens in a tire pile. The animals were later given to a veterinarian colleague of Edwards, to be neutered, and live in the veterinarian's barn across the Idaho border.
The TNR program has been running for the past two years, funded by donations.
"We have some rock-star TNR trappers," Edwards said, referring to residents and business owners using store-bought cat or raccoon traps.
Female cats may have three litters per year, with four to five kittens in each.
The wild cats in Palouse have been known to fight with pets, too.
"Where there are shelter, food and water is where they pop up," said Edwards, noting how residents leave out food for the visitors.
The first wild cat arrived at Anderson's shop two are three years ago, he guessed.
"It was feral. It wouldn't come near anybody. Then it started having babies," he said.
The company just sent three cats away last week and one they will bring back neutered to be an office cat.
"He likes to sleep in the forklift too," said Anderson.
The city will continue to look into the matter.
"We're going to investigate this," said Dixon. "Depending on costs, we don't want to make it, as they say, the cure is worse than the problem."
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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